The Learn-It-All Leader by Damon Lembi
What's It About?
Too often, the bottom line in business is valued more than the journey endured to get there. But the journey is where real growth occurs. If you’re a learn-it-all leader, you embrace the journey because there you become exceptional. The Learn-It-All Leader is a compelling guide to being your best and playing to win, every time.What makes Damon Lembi’s story so interesting is that he could have taken the easy way out.
Lembi, CEO of global corporate training solutions provider Learnit and author of The Learn-It-All-Leader (Lioncrest Publishing), readily acknowledges there are “serious perks” growing up in a privileged environment when your family is wealthy and well-known, well-connected, able to open doors and provide top-notch specialists, coaches, trainers and state-of-the-art everything.
However, Lembi believes that great leaders are great students, “and the world is their classroom.” And he wasn’t going to take anything for granted. He was going to learn the ropes and mature through hard work and a number of inherited and developed qualities as the kind of leader he wanted to be.
Leaders in the Making
The Learn-It-All Leader is not only his story, full of anecdotes, growing pains, lessons learned and ultimate successes. It is his blueprint to becoming a great leader. As he found out, “Great leaders aren’t born. They’re not made either. They’re in the making.”
“If you’re young and anxious about your abilities … or convinced everyone else has it all figured out, please recognize the enormous advantage you have — you’re not a know-it-all!”
If you are a student of leadership, many of the ideas and concepts behind Lembi’s success formula will not necessarily break new ground: listen carefully, be humble, respectful, trusting, collaborative, build great teams, great cultures, be open to innovation — you get the idea. The difference is that Lembi stresses continuing education as a method onto itself, a necessary spoke in the wheel to make the entire machine run. And he advocates it just as much for team members as leaders.
What’s more, Lembi is a storyteller, recalling his days as a major college baseball player and lessons learned on and off the field during that stage of his life. He also includes numerous tales from the front lines (and behind the scenes) at Learnit, the training company his father founded and he took over that helps organizations not only focus on what skills they need today but the skills they need for the future, enabling companies to build a productive, happy and empowered workforce.
Engaging Storytelling
The book is divided into two general sections: Being, or how people think, and Doing, examining how learn-it-alls approach matters differently and how they are in a position to take bolder risks and make better decisions.
Lembi has an easy and captivating writing style, using storytelling to engage his audience and make his points from real-life experience rather than being preachy. Just like he and his father before him believe any kind of training need not be tedious and boring, Lembi also clearly feels that way when it comes to communicating lessons and insights about business — or writing a book of business tips.
For a different kind of business book with a different kind of delivery and approach, The Learn-It-All Leader is worth a spot on any business person’s shelf — to say nothing of a more general audience inclined to buy into the thinking that we function in a society of lifetime learning.
Learn-it-all leaders, Lembi explains, “ recognize leadership is a process rather than a destination, one which keeps them engaged, humble and curious. These personal attributes give them the courage and ability to take action, make bold decisions, build great teams and cultures, play to win, and constantly learn to be a coachable coach and a lifetime student.”
About Damon Lembi:
Damon Lembi is CEO of Learnit, a global leader in corporate training solutions that has upskilled more than 1.8 million professionals in the past 27 years. Damon lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and loves books, music and above all spending time with his wife Cara Mia, their two kids Lucian and Walter, and Pablo the Puggle. Visit www.learnit.com.
